A decent policy

David Shearer’s policy of free meals for low decile schools is a bloody good one – there are too many kids that are going to school hungry and suffering setbacks because of it.

But remember, this should only be seen as a stop-gap measure. The goal should be to make sure all kids are feed properly at home and that will require some much larger, much more transformational policies as institutional poverty is practically a requirement of our current economic settings (as an aside I highly recommend Danyl’s post on this).

In the meantime though, kai pai David Shearer, now make sure you address the economic policies that have been making kids hungry since 1984.

Fair enough McFlock, it’s just I am a pākehā Te Mana member and like to skite!

I know a number of teachers in the Far North that feed kids with cereal and toasted sandwich makers and so forth already at their own cost unfortunately.

One looks forward to Labours review so that the members at large run the joint rather than the parliamentary wing and caucus and then we may get the final turn around. Even if Mr Pagani going is not much really, it is a good chance to make big changes.

I noted that this morning on Radionz John Key quoted that in many schools, trusts are already providing meals. Conclusion – government can wash its hands of concern and input. No leave it to the teachers or overworked community people who usually haven’t much money to spare. The wealthy just sit in their houses, work in their gardens, and sneer at the poor and their efforts.

Then Jokey Hen quotes that fruit is already being provided. I’d like to see him do a day’s work on an orange and a biscuit or small sandwich perhaps.

And then says that reading recovery is already being provided. Apparently in only 40% approx of low decile schools (or in new terminology working class neighbourhoods?).
Then a Prof comes on and says that reading recovery is outdated. Do nothing till I call you is the slogan here I think.

Yet we know we have a tail of school failure, and want to be able to tabulate that to the nth degree with National Standards which apparently are very uneven in the Standards. So tell us what we already know and spend $mills on it that should be going to real assistance programs. Very wise thinking and spending!! I don’t think.

Not necessarily. This policy can be expanded to include families on a benefit over time if it isn set up correctly. Then it can be assured that entire families in need will have a home. All the healthy food they need (potentially far more than they get now) and benefits can be reduced accordingly. This is something that even National would be keen on.
It could also provide opportunities to set up infrastructure and supply chain to enable a move to a resource based economy.
It is a fantastic policy on all fronts IMHO

It’s not as simple as that. Whether it’s acceptable or not depends on what Labour means by it and how it sees it working in the future. If, for example, it’s as Carol above suggests then such a programme could work, i.e. as “an integral part of free education for all”, then it’s possible the policy could be sound and have integrity. But Labour doesn’t seem to be saying this. Shearer’s already said it’s for the lower decile schools. The fact the announcement’s come after the child poverty report also suggests the programme’s not about what Carol’s talking about. What’s also not clear is whether Labour considers it a permanent fixture, which it seems to be saying it is and if so then we’re diving back into poor law days without addressing the root causes of poverty and which dangerously plays right into the hands of Nact’s less government / less welfare / private charity model. Even if Labour does say it’s a temporary measure until “alternatives” are found, when do we know when we’ve found them? Policies like these would be very difficult to end once they’re put in place. Just look at how many saw food banks back in the early 1990s as “a temporary fix”? They’re now such an entrenched institution they’re even seen by Work and Income as a legitimate form of welfare. Food banks have helped plug gaps in ways that let the government off the hook fixing the systemic problems. Food in schools has the danger of doing the same. On top of this how would such funding be guaranteed to be used in the way it was intended and not used, as time goes by, to justify cuts to spending on education overall? The way education is funded and education budgets overall can over time are easily skewed or absorbed or characterised as something different and have the effect of lowering school funding overall.

Of course we need to make sure kids have a full belly every day so they can learn with smiles on their faces. But if Labour’s new policy targets only lower decile schools and becomes a permanent part of how we deliver education then not only will we know it’s failed, we’ll be giving the many “true haters and greedy” within Nact, many of whom would not oppose such a policy, a helping hand to make things even worse.

“But if Labour’s new policy targets only lower decile schools and becomes a permanent part of how we deliver education then not only will we know it’s failed, we’ll be giving the many “true haters and greedy” within Nact, many of whom would not oppose such a policy, a helping hand to make things even worse.”

True, targeted welfare of this sort can perpetuate the issue of deserving/undeserving. Should be in all schools…as DTB says below.
Also instead of based on charities, this is an opportunity to create jobs. Just like the housing shortage in Chch/Auck: lack of builders, unemployed, and youth who would benefit from a decent apprenticeship scheme.
The dots are all there, can we get some people to join them up please.

I guess my point is that I’m wary of this kind of policy as it needs to be grounded in a plan for broader economic change. Otherwise it’s basically a third-way policy in that it uses the government profits (taxes) from a market economy to ameliorate (in a small way) that same market economy’s social costs.

That works in a boom but we’re not in a boom now.

You may recall Key’s plan for free muesli bars for poor kids (whatever happened to that wee gem?) I’m not saying that this is akin to it but I do want to see Shearer et al start talking about doing the big things differently as well as getting the small things right.

I agree it needs to be grounded in a programme for broader economic change. And the use of PPPs and charities is all a bit neoliberal 3rd way. I rather go for the whole way the state-funded way, as in Finland.

What is really interesting is that the blowtorch that the Standard has recently applied to Shearer has obviously had an effect.

Yes, ms and it is such a relief – hopefully not short-lived. I’ve never understood what happened, because I remember David Shearer coming to speak to Labour members in my electorate about 18 months ago (well before he was leader) and he was saying exactly the same sort of thing only he applied it to a wider sphere of activity than just education. One has to wonder who was stopping him from coming out with his beliefs sooner.

Good work, Labour. Keep rolling out policy initiatives that focus on the contempt this government has for our people.

I loved the NZ Herald expose of National MP slumlords who are too greedy to insulate their rental properties.

Jobs next. Why are there unemployed while in Christchurch people are living on the streets!

After that “exporting profits.” Why do we sell more abroad than we buy from overseas but for 30 years have NEVER had positive balance of payments? Because our company profits go to overseas owners. We can never milk enough cows or sell enough wood chips to overcome the mountain of money we pay to foreign owners of our banks and factories.

But remember, this should only be seen as a stop-gap measure. The goal should be to make sure all kids are feed properly at home…

It’s depressing the above needs mentioning, but witness the above comments effectively declaring it the govt’s job to feed kids via the education system (presumably from people who don’t have any kids, because parents for the most part recognise instinctively whose job it actually is to see that their kids get enough to eat).

A policy of schools feeding kids because the alternative is hungry kids is a declaration of emergency and has to be regarded as a stopgap until measures to see that kids are able to be fed by their parents are in place, not as a worthy general principle. So the big unanswered question here is: what’s their proposal for eradicating the need for schools to be feeding kids?

Why do you think schools should not be providing food at school?
I see it as a preventative measure for all kinds of health and social issues.
Do you hold this view for ideological reasons, or moral reasons, or what? I’m yet to hear a decent argument against it.

For the same reason I think hospitals shouldn’t be fixing people’s cars or doing their dry cleaning – it’s not what they’re there for. That’s not either an ideological or a moral reason, more of a practical one. You could potentially make a case for school meals on the basis of parental convenience, but that’s not what’s under discussion here.

The thing is, food in schools isn’t cheap and prevents no negative health effects in my and a great many other people’s kids’ cases, because:

1. We have no shortage of cash to buy our own food; and

2. We aren’t wasters.

So, the problem we’re looking at here isn’t one of schools failing to act in their appropriate role as canteens for the educational proletariat, it’s one of significant numbers of parents lacking either the cash, or the strength of character, or both, to be able to feed their kids properly. Which means, as pointed out multiple times already, programmes involving schools feeding kids are, or fucking ought to be in any case, an emergency stopgap measure while the actual problem is sorted out.

“…For the same reason I think hospitals shouldn’t be fixing people’s cars or doing their dry cleaning – it’s not what they’re there for…”

This has to be the stupidest argument against a school lunch program I have ever seen. Of your argument, Samuel Johnson would simply take you any school in the land and say “I refute it thus!” Schools are state institutions; they are there to provide precisely what the government says they should provide. According to you, schools are not there to provide sports facilities, but they all have sports fields and swimming pools and much more besides. They have dental clinics, despite you clearly thinking they don’t have any mandate to fix childrens teeth whatsoever. Why can’t the government direct schools to also be community hubs with public health clinics, school lunches, adult education, sports, and even local community justice? They are state institutions, whose role may expand as the state sees fit. Finland – we all remember Finland – has a extensive schhol lunch program, as does Sweden. They would fall about laughing at the nonsense that schools don’t exist to provide meals.

New Zealand never had school lunches because once upon a time people Jack was able to set the price of his labour with his master, and his price was enough to provide for his children’s needs from an ordinary wage. The neo-liberal “triumph” has been to deliver our country’s workers back to the mean state of the European poor from which Jack had thought he had delivered his decendents. The same conditions that led to creation of school lunch programs exist here. In addition, one could observe that common sense tells us that the provision of free, nutritious meals could be one of the clues to the success of Finland’s education system.

Therefore it seems to me the conditions are fully met for Labours policy to be hailed as a simple common sense targetted measure that’ll actually improve educational outcomes. To me the aspect of this debate I find most incredible is that we are having it all. The cost at the upper end is put at nineteen million dollars per annum. That is absolute chicken feed. To put it in context, this National government has spent 200 million dollars just on consultants for its road building for National party cronies program. That is a decade of school lunches right there.

New Zealand never had school lunches because once upon a time people Jack was able to set the price of his labour with his master, and his price was enough to provide for his children’s needs from an ordinary wage.

And the left’s answer to the loss of Jack’s ability to provide for his kids from an ordinary wage is, apparently, for the schools to provide for them instead. Despite your lengthy rebuttal, I’m still not seeing the awesome genius of this approach.

“And the left’s answer to the loss of Jack’s ability to provide for his kids from an ordinary wage is, apparently, for the schools to provide for them instead.”

Yeah…most here think feeding kids at school as the best, cheapest, most efficient, and least stigmatising way to ensure kids are not hungry.
But you seem quite sure that it is not the best way…so what do you the the answer is? Or are you happy the way things are?

Right, so because Shearer hasn’t come up with a policy that reverses all the neo-liberal disasters of the last quarter century, it follows that everything less is just existenial posturing? Sorry PM, but that is just patheticly defeatist posturing on your part. Worse, it is a defeatist posturing that won’t at least have the practical outcome of filling hungry tummys soon. A policy that feeds hungry kids is still a policy that feeds hungry kids, even if it doesn’t fit your purist desire for panacea solutions or nothing.

so because Shearer hasn’t come up with a policy that reverses all the neo-liberal disasters of the last quarter century, it follows that everything less is just existenial posturing?

No. More like “But remember, this should only be seen as a stop-gap measure. The goal should be to make sure all kids are feed properly at home…”, which is from the post and the bit I commented in support of. The dispute you’ve wandered into is with those who feel that the govt feeding people’s kids for them isn’t just a stopgap measure to ensure all kids get fed while the govt works on the actual problem.

Years back I was stunned when a worker in an aged care facility told me she had no had a pay rise for 15 years for doing the same work, which with inflation meant she had less than half of her prior wages. At the same time the management had significantly increased profits and wages. Obviously something had happened to break “Jills” ability to set the price of her labour.

I see a certain (antisocial) genius in the simple formula of cutting real wages to move the profit upwards. Lets face it the price of work is not set by any other criteria than how close to, and what control of the margin you can get. Consequently we citizens have to feed the children whilst those close to the transaction / deals / books wander off in big brand new 4WDs paid for as tax write offs. Don’t tell me it ain’t so, I run the transaction / deals / books and it has been very nice from this end.

Actually, some of us instinctively feel we all should take some responsibility for ensuring that all kids are fed well and educated.

Once the whole community, including the broader whanau, looked out for their own. Since the rise of industrial capitalism, there’s a been a shift to the nuclear family, relatively separated from the rest of the community.

Yeah, and once the whole community painted themselves with woad, lived in mud huts and looked forward to a life expectancy in the 30s, but that’s not how we live now. People who don’t delude themselves with hippy fantasies about villages raising a child are awake to the physical reality that nobody is going to care about their children the way they do – and if they don’t care, those kids have got some serious shit coming regardless of “community,” “whanau,” bullshit it how you will.

Well, those are pretty bizarre inferences to draw from that comment. Mickysavage: anything I write about the responsibilities of parents to their children is based on over a decade of intense and at times emotional personal experience of it. Carol: this may come as a shock, but ownership of another human being has been illegal for a long time in NZ. Maybe you were confused by the fact that it was accepted back in those halcyon, community-driven, pre-industrial capitalism days.

People who don’t delude themselves with hippy fantasies about villages raising a child are awake to the physical reality that nobody is going to care about their children the way they do

For proper socialisation a child needs a lot of people about them so that they can learn. Stick them in a a small, insular family environment and they fail to learn that socialisation. And I’m pretty sure than most people will look after any child as well as they possibly can because most people aren’t sociopaths.

So instead of addressing the real issue yet again we see a politician/Party playing on the peripheral. Either govt support is inadequate of those receiving it, or it is adequate and those receiving it are unable to allocate it out to allow that their children are adequately fed. But why address the cause ???

You should be in politics. So you think kids are starving because ….?
If it is lack of benefits or lack of income well sorry your party is a major part of the problem. If it is lack of parental skills them up skill. As I have read here and in open mike e.g. If you don’t know the reason then go out and find out but don’t try to tell us a solution when you don’t even know the cause. Pity that Labour had 9 great potential years to solve this under boom economic times and achieved a great big “F”. From questioning at RedAlert Labour appears not to even know what a livable wage is. So if you have no idea of that how can you work out what assistance is needed to lift these families up to be a participant in society and to benefit instead of survive.

Mary 13.2
9 September 2012 at 6:08 pm
If it wasn’t driven by poverty and was simply seen as part and parcel of a free and inclusive education system then perhaps. But this is Labour’s response to the fact families can’t afford to feed their kids. If this is all that Labour can come up with, a policy that feeds into the Nact agenda of moving the responsibility for social welfare from government to the community and eventually private charity then all I can say is that Labour are just a bunch of unthinking and shortsighted twits.

Only when real people accept the only way to work towards a future that might include them and their families, is to form a political party in a cogent fashion with, some focussed core policies, about a half dozen to start with. Then go about putting a challenge forward at the elections, by appealing to the majority of this country who are being screwed, will there be any genuine hope!

Politics has become so bad, that anything which is not sh8T news, actually becomes seen as positive action…

To be frank Psycho I do not give a flying feck who feeds the children as long as they are fed

Well, you should. This is something that shouldn’t be needed, and although $40 mil isn’t much in the greater scheme of things, the fact it needs to be spent on this means we have a serious problem that really needs sorting out, not having a school meals band-aid put on it so we can kid ourselves it’s all sorted. By all means put the band-aid on it, but let’s not lose sight of the underlying problem.

the fact it needs to be spent on this means we have a serious problem that really needs sorting out

Yep we do. The working poor cannot feed their kids properly and those without jobs do not have a chance. This really does need to be sorted out. I propose that the wealthy that already have way more than they need should share it around and expect less and give up the last tax cut.

Give up the last tax cut? Well, sure. That would reduce the amount the govt’s borrowing every month, but in the meantime there’s all these kids to feed.

What I’d propose counts for shit seeing as I’m not standing for election, but as a matter of idle speculation:

1. Wages need to go up. Best way to do that is to implement a friendlier legislative environment for unions.

2. Unemployment needs to go down. Govts tend to be in a pretty good position for kicking off large-scale projects involving a lot of labour, and seeing to it that locals get the jobs.

3. People with neither the ability nor the willingness to look after children need to be encouraged to avoid creating them. There’s a wide range of options, none of which find favour with hand-wringers.

All the above are long-term, so yes we need school meals in the short term. Skip the above and you’ll be needing the school meals in perpetuity.

Because it’s not actually the govt’s job to feed your kids, any more than it’s the govt’s job to buy their clothes, see to it they get a shower occasionally or read them a story at night. Once we’re confident parents have enough money to feed their kids, the govt should back off and leave them to it, as a matter of principle. As I wrote above, you can make a case for school meals as a convenience thing and some countries do provide them, but I find it a crap idea in principle, first because parental convenience is a luxury taxpayers needn’t fund, and second… well, it’s hard to decide which is a worse prospect – bureaucrats establishing just how cheaply they can feed a schoolful of kids, or professional busybodies imposing their “healthy food” neuroses on schoolfuls of kids. Under National it’d be the first, and under Labour the second. Neither appeals.

Government need not fund tax cuts for the top 20%,but they do,government need not fund
the vast array of ‘consultants’ but they do,government need not cost the tax payers billions of dollars in the sale of assets,but they do, government need not take tax payer perks,but they do,government need not take acommodation allowances,but they do,government’s actions are the cause of the problems,yes they are.

A permanent food programme only for lower decile schools is an admission by Labour that they don’t care about fairness or equality. It plays into right-wing thinking around who’s responsible for the delivery of welfare in the same way as the Whanau Ora programme does. It’s easy to support these ideas because nobody wants to be seen as opposing kids getting fed or Maori taking control over their future, but hearing Shearer talking about government funding community groups to go into schools to provide meals for disadvantaged kids was sickening. Why are these kids disadvantaged in the first place, Mr Shearer? This is just more evidence that Labour’s policies on welfare are identical to what ACT/National want. The sickness beneficiary on the roof, support for no benefit for those with warrants – now it’s shifting responsibility for welfare delivery over to the community. All this on top of what Labour did to social welfare through its nine-year reign of terror on social welfare including introducing legislation that allows work-testing of people on the invalid’s benefit! FFS! With all of this and now funding charity to feed kids in low decile schools is a short step to the work houses and other laws for the poor that failed way back then and for the same reasons will fail today. Labour’s welfare policy is anathema to fairness and equality and is divisive. There is no hope for Labour. They are unfixable. I say cut them loose now.

Psyho so we bring up healthy well educated kids that don’t require more state help as seen in our own longtitudinal study in dunedin with good food housing and education we inoculate these children for life.

But there will be free lunch. Kids who don’t get breakfast from their parents probably dont get lunch either. And the kids won’t learn if they are hungry in the afternoon. So the logical next step is that the state should provide lunch for them as well. The teachers don’t have that much to do so they will be happy to supervise the meal. Well they will have already got used to it after supervising breakfast, so it’s all good. And to be “fair”, the state should provide breakfast and lunch for all children, irrespective of decile rating (which we arent allowed to know anyway). This regime must apply to pre-school children as well because, as we all know, the early years are the most important period for learning.

So by your definition, parents who don’t feed their kids are not human?

I’d say that the very few parents who choose to not feed their kids have perhaps lost touch with their humanity. But that is very different from the many who are part of the structural 6-8% unemployment and/or fucked by winz or ACC who are simply too poor to feed their kids adequately.

Seriously, go to your local charity or food bank and have a chat with their budget advisor. Ask them about the ratio of dropkicks who put all their money on HPs for the soundsystem vs parents whose meager income doesn’t meet essential bills.

The fact that you even asked that question shows how out of touch you are with how some of your fellow citizens live.

What is the cost of some slices of bread and and some peanut butter? It is one hell of a lot if you don’t have it because you just spent all the cash paying some inflated rental plus increased power bills etc.

OT So National is already contributing so that makes them a communist party according to your short sighted redneck theory.
So this money disappears forever OT stops going round the economy according to your dimwitted ideas.
The money put into this area goes to the shops employees growers distributors who all work not simply speculate and they all pay taxes gst company and personal etc.
Grow up.and stop being a shortsighted selfish prick!

Actually on reflection this announcement by Labour might be far more significant than we realise at face value. To suggest that food must be given to children indicates to me that :
* Labour finally understand that the market has failed to deliver to those in need.
* Labour has decided that those on the non voting disenfranchised take priority over winning the floating centrist vote.

I hope this signals the beginning of a fundamental move back to Labours roots.

Yes Burt, I think the centre is best left to the “right”, its going to shrink dramatically as the recession increases. The new “unemployed” classes will be mighty pissed off at their fall from the centre.

Remind me what WFF is/supposed to achieve? Is it a failed policy?
If it is not achieving what it was intended for then maybe it needs to be riviewed and the money can come from that pool to provide breakfast for the kids?

NZ didn’t lose the full employment policy, it failed…. As a policy goal it was abandoned because it’s not something that can be successfully engineered in a sustainable way. Of course in dreamy ‘fighting the man’ memories it was a roaring success to mandate full employment… nope, not social engineering – really it wasn’t….. it’s progressive…

If they’re in employment then they’ll probably increase they’re competence. If they’re on the unemployment benefit then they probably won’t. So, $12k/annum to achieve nothing or $30k/annum to give somebody a chance – I think I’ll go with the latter thanks.

Steve, thats deliberately disingenuous. If an employer has 2 roles why would he hire 3?
As an employer I can tell you that the reason for unemployment is that the revenue incoming has lost volume and / or margin…..so you decrease the costs. Nobody tries to diminish revenue (sales), but if there is less money being spent in the market revenue falls. Employing more people for less wont put more money into the market.

which means, by extrapolation you accept the need for welfare and don’t deride those who are on it or begrudge it to them.

so if the minimum wage were $5 an hour, and employer would employ 4 people for the office admin job instead of 1??? And how would they be able to make sure their kids had breakfast lunch and dinner on that wage?

The imaginary trickle down theory of the extra wealth generated by the business, will lead the employer to offer wage increases all the time… of that’s right, he/she would rather employ 4 at $5 per hour for one job…. wouldnt want to pay 4 people $10 in good times to do the same one job…

Just one more comment on Shearer’s speech. While the school lunch program is for some bizarre reason of great interest to the ideological and moral panic merchants of the right, the proposal that career planning for students should begin ”at the very start of secondary school” potentially is far, far more important.

If we look at two of the three European countries with the lowest youth unemployment – Switzerland and Germany (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/may/16/youth-unemployment-europe-oecd) – we discover that the secret to their low unemployment is robust vocational programs to take kids from school into jobs. Germany has its paid apprenticeship system (often while still at school) and Switzerland has its vocational education system, which combines school education with a paid apprenticeship in a company (the so-called dual system).

If Labour is serious about this then it shows someone has finally woken up to the actual mechanism that translates an excellent education system into a highly productive, employed one. It also signals that someone somewhere in a major political party is finally looking at empirical evidence instead of just declaring the market will provide the mechanism for job training. Up until now, New Zealanders have adopted an underpants gnomes approach to the link between education, employment, and productivity that has gone:

Throw money at education.
?
High productivity and wages.

Effectively, we’ve indulged in a vastly inefficient and wasteful middle class educational arms race for degrees that simply means we churn out vast numbers of lawyers, accountants, business graduates, performing and liberal arts students and the like who discover that a $50,000 student loan gets them a 35k entry level job with the IRD – providing the IRD with a worker that a vocational training scheme combined with a three year diploma could have done without the vast cost incurred in student loans.

Of course, the implication is that the business sector will actually have to help and contribute to an proper jobs and training program, so I expect our captains of industry to oppose anything as enlightened as that tooth and nail.

I think that middle class capture meant our quest for the myth of an egalitarian education system has been interpreted since the 1970s as “everyone has the right to go to university and get a degree”, when what Clarence Beeby actually said was “every person regardless of background or ability had a right to an education OF A TYPE FOR WHICH THEY WERE BEST SUITED”.

CV 14.1
I think that all uni qualifications should be cross department, some social policy, some business, strategic planning and decision making, some study of broad history looking for the common recurring factors, full study of economic philosophy and broad study of philosophers, some literature involving non-fiction Marx and Hitler and included, and studies of different political and ruling systems, and then importantly Critical Thinking that helps to sort out the bullshit from others and identify the merely wishful thinking from oneself and the practical methods to humanely achieve near to those wishes.

That’s all I want. Probably missed some things out. But Douglas Myer and some other high flyer took history, the study has to be targeted beyond just the wonder of the past but what can
be learned and applied better for a beneficial outcome to society as well as oneself.

“While the school lunch program is for some bizarre reason of great interest to the ideological and moral panic merchants of the right, the proposal that career planning for students should begin ”at the very start of secondary school” potentially is far, far more important.”

beginning to train children in jobs at age 13 is more important than ensuring 5-11 year olds get a decent meal a day???? It’s a shame we don’t have wood burning open fires as much anymore, we could make them all chimney sweeps during primary school to teach them the value of money. How do you get around the probability that we have so many law, commerce and business graduates because the might dollar rules the minds of those choosing these subjects. To get lots of money to feed their already insatiable habit to have everything they want, now??

I also like Louise Wall’s proposal to get 4 year olds into school grounbds for free pre school. This, together with one decent meal a day (minimum) will be a great foundation for learning and their futures.

Yes, I think vocational training should not start at school. School should provide a broader education and leave options open to students. how many of us knew what job we wanted to do when at school?

Some pre-vocational courses could be provided at school though, along side more academic subjects: courses that give students an idea of what various jobs are like, and then required for them.

But I do think there should be less focus on all students getting degrees, and more value attached to training for skilled jobs.

As well as that, the general focus on both school and tertiary education should not be purely vocational – I attach high value to arts and social science courses, but they all don’t provide an easy route into work – they are of value to our culture, and for preparing people for taking an active and critical role in a democratic society.

I’m pleased to see Shearer mention inclusion of ‘civics” into the school curriculum.

“beginning to train children in jobs at age 13 is more important than ensuring 5-11 year olds get a decent meal a day???? ”

If the problem of unemployment and our young ones leaving school into unemployment and no training is not addressed there will only be increasingly more children and adults going without the basics of life.

The feeding of children is only the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff of poor political approaches over the last 30+ years and it is imperative that the poor political approaches are addressed.

I would like to be see more interest in addressing the long-term issues on these disgraceful conditions.

feeding five year olds is NOT the ambulance at the bottom, it’s the fence at the top of the cliff… from a health and education point of view. Able, well fed and focused children will find their way far more than sick hungry children under a car at 13 doing an apprenticeship.

I dont think schools are the place for the provision of meals. This policy will balloon out to mega millions. More schools outside the original group will want to be included, then there will be the cost of food prep areas, then there will be a need for full commercial services meeting commercial hygiene standards, then there will be a need for dining halls, then there will be the need for trained staff………..etc etc

Instead

If the state is going to pay for a meal, then provide each qualifying family with a card that can be swiped at the local shop for a boxed lunch for each child, picked up on the way to school.

It’s pretty much an ingrained genetic trait of the average statist that they either fail to recognise or purposely ignore the hidden consequences of their actions. This is a well intentioned policy, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I’d like to know what kind of food they propose feeding the kids. Likely a low fat one chocker block with hearthealthywholegrains. In other words, sugar and gut irritants.

On targeting children for meals I have found an anecdote from a book on the memories of a poor girl in London. She was bright and had been sent to a school said to be superior, and the girls certainly were. You don’t just go to school to learn from the teacher, the other pupils can teach some crushing lessons.

These ones laughed at her long uniform, frugally chosen as big enough to grow into for years.
They were from better-off homes, mostly Jewish, and called her Polly Long Frock. Then
there was a school request for children needing a dinner ticket because of poverty. She was humiliated when she was the only one to go forward. Then she felt ashamed about being poor and singled out and didn’t go to the meals, so had no food. A friend heard her tale and asked the Headmaster to hand the tickets out in private. Eventually her begging to return to her old school was successful – and she did very well there, and got good marks.

So there is more to school than teachers providing education for children. Youngsters need to be cared for and about. It doesn’t pay to act from feelings of ‘should’ in making decisions for others, but to see the situation in full.

The frakking Tories here just hate it when others get the privileges that they love having their own kids get.

My thoughts exactly. So they raise the welfare dependencies bogie as a way to discredit anything that will level the playing field a bit – in spite of the fact that lessening inequalities are generally better for the whole society.

This won’t totally end inequalities. The better off families will still be more advantaged. However, it’ll make it harder for them to rip of society to become more wealthy than anyone needs to be.

Not a bad idea Georgy, but I can equally see this idea of yours ballooning out to cost millions, I think the Labour policy could work, and at least it shows they at least appear to give a fuck. And as a chef myself, I think that it would depend on the meals being offered, if they are American style school dinners, then yes, full kitchens would be needed, but if it is cold foods, sandwiches, fruit and ready made food, which is far more nutritious than chicken nuggets and pizza , not very many facilities are needed, all I would need is a few s/less steel benches, a fridge and the food obviously, everything else I would need is in my knife roll. I would get right behind this policy, would solve a few job needs too I would think.

You never know, this could turn out awesome. I’d be for it on a school by school basis, let them choose. But forcing it down a certain segment’s throat will never work. It never does. The logistics are way more complicated and expensive than you seem to think.

The govt isn’t in charge of the procurement, distribution, handling, preparation, serving and clean up of our food for a reason. We would all starve, as is happening to kids in American and British schools. They are being feed nutrient poor foods (all signed off on by their national food authorities) that are full of starch and sugar.

Some school lunches are good, some school lunches are bad. The existence of good school lunches demonstrates that it is an achievable goal, yea even for a government. The costs are surmountable, the logistics solvable, and the benefits incalculable.

“Especially compared to letting children go hungry.”
You presume I’m in favour of this?

“The costs are surmountable, the logistics solvable, and the benefits incalculable.”
Fine good, you are right. Let’s see how it all pans out. If they go through with it, I hopes it is a rousing success. If it isn’t successful will you show any form of contrition that you might have been wrong? That you supported a plan that wasted money and contributed to suffering, or will you blithely go on suggesting crack pot schemes as the statists continue to do?

Dude, you’re going to great lengths to pick holes in an alternative to children going hungry, while offering none yourself. But far be it for me to cast aspersions on your character – you do well enough yourself.

And you know what, if school lunches turn out to be more harmful for the kids than going hungry, it would probably be because National got a hold of them. And no, in that case I wouldn’t be making an act of contrition – I’ll be working through democratic means to improve the lunches.

Love your idea that some food “contributes to suffering” more than no food.

Korean school lunches can be a bit up and down. It is just a giant lump of starchy empty calories that will spike your blood sugar and some watery soup. A small serving of salty preserved veg, maybe a little meat if you are lucky and a sugary treat to top it off. It’s more of a recipe for a post lunch nap than some magic potion that will lead us all to prosperity.

You were in a different Korean school than me then.
In the state school I was at we got soup, rice, Meat/Tofu/Fish, at least 2 fresh vegetables, Kimchi and a piece of fruit.
Was great as it became my main meal and meant I only needed a light meal later on.

Wrathall……..as explained in words to this effect by (I think) American historian William Blum;

The Trickle Down Theory benefits the poor because it facilitates the falling of crumbs from the tables of the rich into the mouths of the poor – it is therefore in the best interests of the poor that society upsize the meals of the rich.

The ungrateful poor just don’t know how lucky they are, do they Wrathall ? If they’d just stop their pathetic whinging in no time at all a minimum wage of $7.50 per hour would have them all creaming it. Masters of the universe like you possessed of your aggressively vaunted fantastical constructs would see to it, wouldn’t you ?

What makes you think that most parents won’t cease to supply food for their kids once they get the idea that it’s the gummint’s job?

Would that be so bad? Think about it.

It’s quicker and more cost effective to produce a lot of meals at once. At the moment, each individual family produces their children’s lunches. Many of the parents in these families are both working and pressured for time.

Having the lunches done for them (including buying the food etc) would take some pressure off parents, and take some stress off many workers, who would then perform better at work.

And as long as there’s a progressive tax regime that raises enough money to do it, seems all good to me. The country, including it’s children and workers would be better off.

And that really what’s at the heart of this policy isn’t it. Beyond all the hand wringing about the fact that hundreds of thousands of your people are so steeped in welfarism that they don’t really see why they should have to feed their kids, there is the agenda of taking as much responsibility as possible from families and handing it over to a state bureucracy. Why not provide everyone with their 3 daily rations? Think of the efficiencies….

it’s fairer than say, a tax cut to the top 5% during a recession which won’t give any momentum to growth or job creation at all… Please don;’t assume that those who can afford to feed their children do it, or do it well.

Well fed, well educated, awake and alert children are more likely to become strong and confidant. This measure will also impact on children’s ability to fight back, off or speak up about abuse etc…just as self defence courses for teenage high school girls has shown (of course the govt put a stop to that nonsense)

South Korea has a tax rate of 4-7%, yet every weekday every public school kid in the country gets a full, hot, healthy, free lunch. Chew on that NZ.

So every kid gets at least one decent meal a day regardless of their family’s economic status.

Is there a problem with parents ‘ceasing to supply food for their kids’? No Steve, there isn’t. That’s because just like every where else parents want to help their kids as much as they can, not starve them. And yes Steve, that even applies to the poor ones.

“Gummints job”, I love that non-thinking right wing drone saying; it shows how much they have swallowed the neo-liberal crap that has led to 25% of children in poverty in this country.

Food to ensure these kids get the best start to their day is an excellent policy. I am sure a well designed healthy meal plan can be put together easily. The logistics of supply should be straight forward; no need for Dickens like pots of gruel that some seem to be imagining.

Free trade means that our citizens, and the citizens of China, Russia, or America, are the same
economically. Welcome to parity of poverty, since the inception of free trade has sen us become
more and more in debt, our ecology more destroyed, our water, soils, atmosphere more polluted and run down. Free trade without even stronger protections of consumers, taxpayers and the environment, without simpler and easier to impose laws on wrongdoers, is effectively global slavery.
Free trade isn’t delivery outcomes that any of us should rejoice in.

Please provide evidence of this fraud to the appropriate authorities. They’re not hard to contact. Especially as free trade and capitalism has brought computers and smart phones within the purchasing range of the poor non-child-feeders.

Ahhhhh…the “authorities” i.e. our political and business leaders…are the PERPETRATORS of the FRAUD

they’re the ones who legalised the theft mate. Or are you just unimaginative?

Especially as free trade and capitalism has brought computers and smart phones within the purchasing range of the poor non-child-feeders.

You are aware that cheap imported shit is not a substitute for real jobs with real wages? That a $200 cell phone doesn’t really make up for a $200 fortnightly shortfall in wages because the minimum wage is so low?

It’s simple, if you spend more than you earn, eventually somone will come and take your stuff to make up the shortfall. If you want to hang onto your stuff, increase your earnings (more mining, dairying, more flexible labor laws, etc) or decrease your spending (WFF, 0% student loans and other welfare). Otherwise stop grizzling when the bills come due for the policies you support.

Do you seriously think the top tax payers go out and use at least that amount of state health, education, etc. Anyway thank you for your admission that behind all the moralising veneer of socialist apologetics is ultimately, the threat of violence.

Government is a perfectly rational response to the threat of violence from war, Randist serial killers, etc. And, yes, it is better to incarcerate Randist superheroes before they kill again, and to use violence against them if necessary, whether their disgusting crimes are the apotheosis of magnificent free will or not.

mike
If you are poor then housing is going to use up around half your very small income. Then food does seem expensive when it has to be bought when electricity use is up in winter for example. Things are relative all right but the disposable income of the individual past and present also has to be looked at.

Under this psychological construct, because the “large group” (i.e. the taxpayers) are taking up responsibility for the children, the parents of those children feel progressively less responsible individually because others are taking up those responsibilities. This seems to lead to a downward spiral that ends up with the state taking complete care for the children.

If “diffusion of responsibility” applies in this way, then interventions that enable parents to provide better care are likely to be more effective than ones that target children directly.

Is that the same kind of ‘diffusion of responsibility’ that happens when the Tories sell assets to buy another bunch of Tories a free irrigation scheme, and sack the Regional Council to make sure it happens fast? That sort? Or where you thinking of another sort?

DoR is about the scenario when no one helps someone because they all wait for someone else to do it. Because there is a large group of people there, no individual feels responsible, so no one takes the first step.

Why do you think the majority of parents who cannot put three square meals on the table for their children do that??

” This seems to lead to a downward spiral that ends up with the state taking complete care for the children.” It could lead to well fed, healthy children, awake and alert in school and learning stuff… they may also learn about good and healthy food, and they might learn to be better people and parents (eventually) for it. Wouldn’t that be awful? Much better to punish the children for their parents’ inadequacies or poverty and ensure the next generation follow the last.

“It could lead to well fed, healthy children, awake and alert in school and learning stuff…”
What makes you think this is a given? This is why I’m so interested in what the school menus will be. Chances are they won’t be filled with foods that are conducive to the outcomes you seem to presume.

“PRIVATE boarding schools feed their well off students THREE MEALS per day and those kids do JUST FINE. (Well we can talk about that heh).
The frakking Tories here just hate it when others get the privileges that they love having their own kids get.”

The closest I got was to imply that simple statements and short words with the important ones in capital letters were part of an attempt to make it as easy as possible for tories to understand that objections to school meals on the basis of practicality are farcical given that they already happen every day.

Nobody has said that private school kids should go hungry. Just that poor kids should be fed. Comments on that?

“Or the state can feed everybodies kids, and go round and wipe their bottoms, and then the taxes will be huge.”

…yeah, then perhaps it is better that we rethink the policies we have been following and ensure that our system ensures there is less of a disparity in income; otherwise, as you astutely point out, the costs are huge.

what part of “could” do I need to explain to you (Rusty)? Perhaps you didn’t get full meals each day and nodded off during english comprehension? It’s unlikely to have a worse outcome than having unfed children in class. Have you read any studies on this issue? I have.

I think anyone who has the absurd notion that this is a method of communism by stealth or any other weasel words of the type needs to know what it is like to be hungry, if they still hold those views, they do need a p in the t.

It’s an old trick, but it still works. Making everything about the kids, when it’s really about the fortunes of the people who talk about the kids. If anyone disagrees, they hate kids. But if they agree, they support a worldview that hates the poor, including their kids. Adult consciences eased on release of this speech: thousands. Children’s stomachs filled: no change. Rapid increase in NZ poverty over the past 25 years: ignored.

“Communism by stealth” is an oxymoron. Not only is it not Communism, this “policy” goes in the opposite direction, starting from a point that those in need have no control over. As desperately well intentioned as it might seem, it isn’t even of the Left. If I were being generous, it’d call it Bourgeois Socialism, that special kind of hot air that warms people as you screw them. But given Shearer’s speeches, full of an alarming mix of Left and Right, with calls to the aspiring working classes, hatred of those who “cannot be understood” and no overall direction, there is also an equal set of parallels to Fascism.

An interesting mix, theoretically speaking, and one I wouldn’t be voting for in a million years. What were Labour thinking when they thought a good hook was: Vote for me or the kids (might) die. The spirit of Pagani, lives on.

The private school system is funded by the taxpayer and the students receive free
meals,those students live in affluent homes and should be able to feed their
kids without free meals and without tax payers assistance,however when it comes to
the less well off students and kids there isn’t allowed to be any assistance at all in the
eyes of key and the right wingnuts,hence key’s statement that “they already get an
orange and bannana” ffs key, you created more unemployment,you created the top
20% of favoured nz’ers singled out for preferential treatment,your policies are
systematicly destroying nz,from the little country towns to the city of auckland,
resign, you have failed.

“Congrats to Labour” says MANA Leader Hone Harawira. “It’s great to hear David Shearer support calls for our kids to receive healthy food in schools in order to raise educational outcomes”.

“Feed our Kids is a core MANA policy and I encourage all politicians to take a look at the private members bill that I lodged last week. The bill allows for all children in all decile 1 and 2 schools throughout the country to receive breakfast and lunch. Everybody knows that a kid with a full puku learns better and that the time has come for children in poverty to who without food to end”.

I knew that asoon as heard this policy announcement that the Nats and their mates would do their best to rubbish it.The amount of negative comments above are just what In expected, All this tells me is that it is a first class policy and the Right is scared. The facts are that we have thousands of hungery kids ,and until that is completly solved we need to feed these poor kids. Its going gto take a while to undom what this ghastly lot of of

Fruit in schools was introduced mainly to decrease school sores. I heard this from a school health nurse on the radio a couple of years back. The government is underestimating what the benefit of providing a breakfast and a lunch would do for children who have hunger pangs.

Were National to trim back on some of the consultants they contract, the money would be available for school meals.

Don’t we give free, or subsidised meals to politicians? Perhaps we could remove all their free food subsidies and drug test them randonmly, as we do others who depend heavily on tax payer income to move from day to day?

Interesting story about the difference between the haves and the havenots.

A very well known politician/cabinet minister decides to take his family on a long haul flight overseas for their holiday.

He moves through the shoot with all the other passengers and upon stepping into the plane turns left.

The head of cabin crew stops him and says “May I see your tickets Mr (insert short control freak name in here). The HOCC says ” I’m sorry you are ticketed for economy Mr “. Mr ….. replies, but you must have free seats in business?” To which the HOCC says ” you have decided not to use your airpoints for an upgrade for this flight Mr…. so please take your seat (points to right of MP) and we will be along with your complimentary water in a few minutes.

Oh yes, it’s only the last government that’s out of touch with the real world…

Conclusions:
The intervention did not reduce breakfast skipping; rather, pupils
substituted breakfast at home for breakfast at school. However, there were
improvements in children’s nutritional intake at breakfast time, if not the rest of the
day, and more positive attitudes to breakfast, which may have implications for lifecourse
dietary behaviours. There was no impact on episodic memory or classroom
behaviour, which may require targeting breakfast skippers.

“Research shows that healthy eating can improve children’s concentration and help them do better in school, says pediatric behavioral nutritionist Janice Baranowski from Baylor University in Houston. Baranowski adds that getting the proper nutrients is especially important for young brains that are still growing and developing. Nutritionist Beth Reardon from Duke University’s integrative medicine center in Durham, North Carolina, adds that research also suggests that certain foods may affect kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, either in a positive or a negative way”.

Its rather ironic that there are those on the right that dismiss this policy and yet it is
their key led govt that promised 170000 jobs,how did that go?
acshully it was all spin,a scrurilous sound bite,meaning didly squat,now we have
people loosing jobs left right and centre and having to exsist on $12.000 a year
base rate, any other allowances need paper work and proof of need.,now enter ms
benefit she is going to bring you down another notch,down where you should be in her
eyes,she says go and find a job! or you will loose half your benefit and if you can’t
you could be in danger of loosing it, is this mind games or what ? if you are sick
or injured or disabled,think of some employment you can do,if there were employers
out there and the jobs were there what employers would want to take on someone
who has health and disability issues as opposed to a healthy individual,so all of the
unemployed,the disabled,the injured,the sick all arrive on the trainwreck policy
back at the winz office,to repeat the cycle,brainless.
We have just got to get this country back to some commonsense
and some form of caring for our fellow nz’ers and kids who are being treated in such a
demeaning way.

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Did you want to know something about how John Key acted as Prime Minister? Which bloggers he briefed, or which journalists he had on speed dial, for example? Sorry, you're now shit out of luck. Key is subject to the ...

Being a media trainer is a bit like being a singing teacher.You have to have a very good ear. It’s not merely about being able to correct glaring examples of poor pronunciation, diction or tone. John Key’s tendency to ...

Today's reminder that Fiji is not a democracy: A Canadian woman living in Fiji appeared before a Parliamentary Select Committee and criticised government policy. So the government deported her:A Canadian woman living in Fiji has been forcibly deported just hours ...

The lesson from the demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) should have been that it is time to re-think this type of so-called trade agreement. But despite warnings from internationally-recognised experts, there are more secretive “trade” negotiations happening this ...

This year I have been focused on getting a better deal for kids and families with learning needs such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, and autism spectrum. We had a Select Committee inquiry into the issues faced, but the Government was too ...

The latest Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) provides further evidence that the economy that the National Government and Bill English have is sitting on shifting sands and leaves many people behind, Labour’s Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson says today. ...

Earlier this week I posed some questions to Finance Minister Bill English about his support for the government’s plan to spend a billion dollars on a new prison. I was pretty disappointed in his answers, all of which flew in the face of his own ...

The Government is dragging its feet while working New Zealanders are still missing up to $2.3 billion collectively owed to them through underpaid holiday pay entitlements, Labour’s Economic Development spokesperson David Clark says. “The cover was blown on this issue ...

I took the opportunity to question the Reserve Bank Governor, Graeme Wheeler, about New Zealand’s lack of deposit protection in front of the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee in Parliament yesterday. Why does the Reserve Bank continue to oppose protecting ...

“There has been a high degree of media interest in New Zealand about a possible post with the United Nations. “My name has been proposed to the United Nations Secretary General to be his Special Representative in South Sudan. ...

Mt Albert MP David Shearer is being proposed for a demanding and exciting role heading the United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan, says Labour Leader Andrew Little. “David has kept me fully informed about this opportunity and we are ...

The Minister of Education needs to show some leadership and secure the future of two not-for-profit early childhood education centres that could be faced with closure as the land they sit on is up for sale, Grant Robertson Labour MP ...

NCEA results for charter schools have been massively overstated with documents revealing many students leaving school without basic NCEA level two qualifications despite this being a main educational target for the Government, says Labour Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins. “Documents obtained ...

The Minister of Social Development should immediately implement safer work practices to ensure tragedies such as the Ashburton killings don’t happen again, says Labour’s Social Development spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni. ...

Comments made by the Māori Party leadership in the wake of John Key’s surprise resignation make one thing clear: a vote for them is a vote for a fourth term National Government, and the increasing inequality and poverty for Māori ...

The public rightly puts much of the blame for the housing bubble at the feet of foreign speculators, and the next Prime Minister must listen to their concerns, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford. ...

The continuing fall in Kiwi kids’ performance in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study shows the damage being inflicted by National’s cuts to education and one-size-fits-all approach, says Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins. “For years, National has ...

Child protection has taken a massive step backwards today with the Government passing a Bill that will give significant powers to unspecified ‘professionals’ or contract holders, says Labour’s Acting Children’s spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni. ...

Last week the Productivity Commission put out a report about how to grow “weak labour productivity”. These views are being criticised as being straight out of the 1980s. What is a real problem is that we have a problem of ...

The Green Party has campaigned for several years for mandatory palm oil labeling to give consumers choice. Most consumers do not want to support a palm oil industry that is destroying tropical rainforests and contributing to dangerous climate change emissions. ...

Cases of syphilis are increasing in Auckland. You read that right, syphilis! RNZ reported today that rates of syphilis have increased by 71 percent (between 2013-2015). We have known about the increase in syphilis figures for a while, but nothing ...

The charade of this Government’s sound economic management is unraveling. Misleading GDP figures, pumped up by property speculation and high immigration, have given the impression that all is well, masking our continued productivity decline compared to OECD countries. In fact, ...

Labour Party Leader Andrew Little has acknowledged John Key’s contribution to Government. “John Key has served New Zealand generously and with dedication. Although we may have had our policy differences over the years, I respect the Prime Minister’s decision to ...

The victory of Labour’s newest MP, Michael Wood, in Mt Roskill is the result of a well-organised campaign run with honesty and integrity, says Labour Leader Andrew Little. “I congratulate Michael Wood on his great victory. He will be a ...

Apartment builder Ockham Residential has become the latest voice to call for the government to build affordable homes for Kiwi families to buy, says Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford. “Helen O'Sullivan of Ockham has now joined prominent businesspeople like EMA ...

The death of Fidel Castro is a huge historical moment for the older generation who grew up with the toppling of Batista, the Bay of Pigs debacle, the death of Che Guevara and the US blockade against Cuba. For younger ...

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has more than halved the number of fisheries observers in the East Coast North Island snapper trawl fishery (SNA1). This reduction in observer days, combined with major failures in an unproven and controversial video ...

TheMāori Land Court, hailed as an “exemplar” by the Ministry of Justice chief executive and Secretary, Andrew Bridgman is under siege by the Government through Māori land reforms and a Ministry restructure, says Labour’s Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri. ...

When approximately 60 per cent of children in state care are Māori processes need to change in favour of whānau, hapū and iwi solutions, said Labour’s Whānau Ora spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta. “Widespread concern about Government reforms of Child Youth and ...

The statistics for hip and knee electives under this Government make depressing reading, says Labour’s Health spokesperson Annette King. “Under the last Labour Government we achieved a 91 per cent growth in hip and knee elective surgery. Sadly under this ...

No amount of spin from Hekia Parata can hide the fact that per-child funding for early childhood education has been steadily decreasing under the National government, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. “In the 2009/10 year early childhood services received ...

35% of New Zealanders now live in places where the average house costs over a million dollars, and it’s killing the Kiwi dream of owning your own place, says Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford. Latest QV stats show that Queenstown ...

The First Reading in Parliament today of his Our Work, Our Future Bill is a chance for political parties to ensure the government buys Kiwi-made more often and backs Kiwi jobs, says Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little. The reading ...

Solid Energy is showing no moral spine and should not have any legal right to block re-entry into the Pike River drift, says Damien O’Connor MP for West Coast-Tasman. “Todays failed meeting with representatives from the state owned company is ...

A briefing to the Minister of Education reveals 20,000 at-risk students can’t be found, undermining claims by Hekia Parata that a new funding model would ensure additional funding reached students identified as at-risk, says Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins. ...

The Treasury has wasted $10 million in two years on the National Government's flawed state house sell off programme, including nearly $5.5 million on consultants, says Labour Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson. "New Zealand needs more state housing than ever, with ...

Yesterday, the Minister for Trade misused economic data in order to try to make the case for more so-called ‘trade agreements’ like the TPPA which are actually deregulatory straitjackets in disguise. In welcoming a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade ...

Wages have plummeted for people with skilled migrant visas working in low-skilled occupations, driving down wages for workers in a number of industries, says Labour’s Immigration Spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway. “Documents acquired by Labour under the Official Information Act reveal that ...

The Government's failure to act on recommendations from Judge Henwood, based on years of work by the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service (CLAS) will further undermine any faith victims may have put into the process, says Labour’s Children’s Spokesperson Jacinda ...

National’s failure to deal with the housing crisis in New Zealand is once again being exposed by the Reserve Bank today, in a scathing assessment of the Government’s response, says Labour Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson “Governor Wheeler is clearly worried ...

On Friday, the Minister for Food Safety, along with her Australian colleagues finally looked at the issue of mandatory labelling of palm oil. We’ve been calling for mandatory labelling for years and we were hoping that the Ministers would agree ...

The ineffectiveness of the National Government’s approach to schooling has been highlighted by the latest Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) report released overnight, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. ...

This week Parliament will select another members’ bill from the cookie tin (I kid you not, it really is a cookie tin) and I’ve just launched a new bill I’m hoping will get pulled – to help people get into ...

I want to end homelessness and ensure that everyone has a warm, safe, dry home. This National Government has let down New Zealanders, especially the thousands of New Zealanders who are struggling with something so basic and important as housing. ...

Kiwis affected by earthquakes might not get a fair deal if the Government pushes ahead with secret plans to let private insurers take over the assessment of claims, says Labour’s Canterbury spokesperson Megan Woods. “Under questioning from Labour the Government ...

The Prime Minister’s fixation with tax cuts, despite a failure to pay down any debt and growing pressure on public services is the real ‘load of nonsense’, says Labour Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson. “We’re getting mixed messages from National. John ...

Last week we were very concerned to hear that an Auckland imam, Dr Anwar Sahib, had been preaching divisive and derogatory messages about Jewish people and women during his sermons. It was a disturbing incident coming at the end of ...

Today the Greens have unveiled a comprehensive set of initiatives around the politically fraught policy area of drug law and reform, showing Moral courage on the issue of Medical Cannabis that has been lacking in parliament. ...

Friday 9 December marks International Anti-Corruption Day. This was established after the passage of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in October 2003 and came into being because of the UN's concerns over the huge dangers corruption poses ...

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling out those who are pushing for the implementation of a sugary drink tax as a ‘post-truth virtue signalling’ citing evidence that many of the claims being made about sugar taxes are demonstrably wrong. ...

“The current Government’s priorities for next year’s Budget say nothing about improving public services, yet deteriorating public services hurt working people as much as a pay cut,” says CTU Economist, Bill Rosenberg. ...

Corrections releases COTA reports To be attributed to Chief Custodial Officer Neil Beales: The United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture establishes an international inspection system for places of detention. The Ombudsmen has responsibility ...

I have today apologised to Mr Derek Leask and Mr Nigel Fyfe for issues identified by the Ombudsman relating to the Investigation into the Possible Unauthorised Disclosure of Information Relating to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and ...

I need to be clear that while the Ombudsman identified issues with fairness and process in the investigation and release of the final report, these concerns relate to one section of a wider report. ...

The union representing more than 900 ambulance officers says its members are pleased that St John has announced to staff it will begin interpreting the meal break provision differently, but they’re renewing their calls for more staff to help relieve ...

State Housing Action Network 7 December 2016 Media release: Overseas investors not welcome to buy Christchurch state houses The news that Housing New Zealand is holding an “invite-only” seminar in Sydney next week for potential buyers of state houses ...

The importance of good risk assessment and monitoring of offenders carrying out community work has been highlighted in today’s sentencing of the Corrections Department under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. ...

The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi supports the decision by the Māori Women’s Welfare League to take a Treaty of Waitangi claim calling for a halt to the reforms to Child Youth and Family and shares the ...

Former New Zealand High Commissioner in London Derek Leask welcomes the formal decision by the State Services Commission (SSC) to accept the Ombudsman’s findings and recommendations on the SSC’s flawed 2012-13 Inquiry into the leaking of MFAT papers. ...

The new Board for Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) has been elected. The Board supersedes the Rural Women New Zealand National Council under new Rules and Bylaws ratified by the RWNZ membership at National Conference in 2015. ...

The Autistic Collective wholly supports the recent decision of the government to ban the practise of seclusion in schools. We also agree with statements made by Altogether Autism and the Human Rights Commission on the practise. ...

The New Zealand Government's proposal to take away legal responsibility for water fluoridation from local councils and give it to the District Health Boards could prove to be an exercise in futility. ...

Chief District Court Judge Jan Marie Doogue has entered a conviction against the Ministry of Social Development on a charge of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its employees. Judge Doogue declined an MSD application ...

The Public Service is working through the implications of the judgement and sentence in the prosecution of the Ministry of Social Development by WorkSafe New Zealand following the shootings in the Ashburton Work and Income Office in 2014. ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzBy Margareth S. Aritonang in Jakarta After two years of running the country, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has still not fulfilled his campaign promise to address long-unresolved human rights abuse cases in Indonesia, a promise that ...

Report by Pacific Media CentreOn International Anti-Corruption Day today, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is highlighting the important role that journalists play in exposing scandals, sometimes at the highest government level, and the grave dangers to which this exposes them. ...

When does heavy social media use become a problem? In-house therapist Ms X discusses good and bad Facebook usage, and strategies for breaking the network’s vice-like hold on your day-to-day life. This week I talk to a reader who ...

The Spinoff and Spark proudly present Pod On The Couch, a weekly podcast exploring music and the people that make it. This episode: Kate Robertson and Duncan Greive join host Henry Oliver to talk about music business and culture in the ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzBy Dr Alexandra Wake in Melbourne As a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Kirakira in the Solomon Islands early today, triggering a tsunami warning across the Pacific, many residents of the country would have ...

We are always comparing ourselves to other parents, but comparing yourself to animals probably isn’t always a good idea. Thom Adams explains why. Mother hens, tiger mums, pangolin dads… as parents, we do have a habit of comparing ourselves with ...

Every Friday, ‘The Album Cycle’ reviews a handful of new releases.ALBUM OF THE WEEKChildish Gambino – Awaken, My LoveGive it a first listen and you’d be forgiven for thinking Awaken, My Love! wasn’t a Childish Gambino record ...

Tara Ward does the unthinkable, and binge-watches 22 episodes of guinea pig dates on TVNZ Ondemand. It’s not often you enjoy a guinea pig’s quest for true love. Hardly ever, in fact. So when the televisual universe vomits up a ...

Henry Oliver tries to go deep with Los Angeles rapper Vince Staples, fails, and asks him about basketball and cartoons instead.Vince Staples is young, very skilled and very, very chill. He raps fast, but talks slow. His records are ...

As the country counts down to the Joseph Parker vs Andy Ruiz WBO world heavyweight championship fight, The Spinoff presents FIGHT WEEK, an inside look at the life and career of Joseph Parker. Today we’re republishing ‘Inside Team Parker’, the ...

With summer upon us, there is no better time to shut all the sunlight out of your room, pull a blanket over your head and watch TV until your eyes hurt. We assemble the best shows on Lightbox that you ...

Superstar of breakfast radio, All Black captain and owner of a world-class duck face, John Key is one hell of a hard act to follow. But is the PM-designate really that boring? Toby Manhire crushes forever the Dull Bill English ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzPacific countries on tsunami alert following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake off Solomon Islands. Image: USGS A tsunami warning has been issued for several Pacific countries – including Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu ...

He wants to be a tax-raising and lowering, eat-the-rich Trump-but-not-like-that of the political centre. Duncan Greive heads to Parnell for the Gareth Morgan party’s very odd first policy launch. “Make New Zealand fair again,” says Gareth Morgan, more than once ...

New verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale.Tag From the tangle of trees by the Warrender Street steps near where city council crews have been deleting the fuck-cunts and dick pics sprayed on the path, sharper than the ...

‘Business is Boring’ is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...

John Key was first elected Prime Minister in 2008. What was New Zealand like when the era of radio banter, ponytail pulling, and bad singing was just beginning? Having trouble viewing the quiz? Take it here. ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzFear and Desperation: Refugees and Migrants Pour into Greece. Prizewinning footage shot in October 2015 – March 2016, Greece. Video: Rory Peck Awards Will Vassilopoulos, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) stringer since 2011, has won the Rory Peck ...

If we were able to speak to the people we were when we first became parents, what would we say? Kiri Speirs reaches back through the years to speak to the mum she was to her beloved daughter Zoe.Dear ...

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nzOPINION:By Peter S. Kinjap in Port Moresby Many current Papua New Guinean parliamentarians are highly respected individuals in their own areas – successful in business, education or public service. With such backgrounds, they routinely attract great ...

Novelist Graeme Lay bids a belated farewell to Auckland’s least glamorous but most useful shopping centre. It was one of the ugliest buildings in Auckland’s central business district, in a part of town where there was tough competition for that ...

The latest installment of Final Fantasy has been released from its cage into the arms of millions of fans. Resident Fantas-ites(?) Eugenia Woo and Matthew Codd settled around the old Skype and discussed what worked, what didn’t and why the ...

In the face of everything from anecdote posing as evidence to bias peddlers to outright quackery, the best riposte is to champion good science. But how? Dr Jessica Berentson-Shaw offers seven tips. Science and evidence gets a pretty bad ...